5S: Sweep: More than Just Cleaning
Definition of SWEEP (Seiso): Clean the area and make sure everything works before storing it.
Sweeping is more than just cleaning. It is the routine act of inspecting the cleanliness of an area and finding and eliminating the root cause of why it continues to get dirty in the first place. The goal is to reduce the need to clean. Sweeping is also about returning everything to its designated storage place (see previous post on Simplify).
In the beginning, Sweeping involves a physical and visual sweep of the area. Make sure things are put away in their designated spots, and that there is no trash or unwanted items in the area. Wipe down the work area or sweep up items that have fallen on the floor. Remember safety is always a factor.
Sweeping is also a time to inspect items before you put them away. No one wants to pull out an item from the cabinet and find that it doesn’t work. If you make sure equipment is in good working order when you store it, it will be in good working order when you need it.
So, let’s apply Sweep to your workplace. For some of us it is a desk. For others a workbench. If we sweep our work surface at the end of the day, we set ourselves up for a more organized and peaceful tomorrow morning. Clean with meaning.
I once had a co-worker who had the messiest desk I had ever seen. Her desk was unbelievable. It was painful! And that was her downfall. It was so messy that she couldn’t find reports and notes, and because of that her job performance suffered. The key is that she didn’t have a system for her paperwork. (This was back in the day when reports were still on paper and not stored electronically.) So instead, she just piled things on her desk.
The problem was that her piles were out of control and became one big pile and then eventually an avalanche of paper. A pile of paper is simply an indecision. She didn’t know where to put the stack of papers so she just piled them on her desk. And every day she would add to that pile. Part of the process of 5S is to develop systems so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen. She had no system in place.
If we were to 5S her desk, we would first begin by Sorting. We would remove everything from the desk and determine what to do with the pile. In the Simplify phase, we would determine where and how to store those thousands of papers on her desk. And in the Sweep phase, we would get into the habit of always putting those papers into the system that we set up. That way, at the end of the day, her desktop would be clean and she could find every report she needed easily.
You may be concerned that sweeping will take a lot of time. Once your system is in place, it should take minimal time to sweep. If you have co-workers, set up a sweep schedule. Assign areas of responsibility to your team’s work area. Everyone has to buy in to the system that you’ve set up and everyone has to do their part. Set standards and expectations for maintaining your workspace. See my next post for more discussion on standardization. So that you don’t lose productivity on your actual job, set a time limit per day to be spent on sweeping. However, if you have your system set up properly and everyone follows the system, sweeping will be minimal anyway.
How can you apply this concept to your workplace?
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